Somewhat reluctantly in this article I will return to writing about the candidates and the upcoming elections because so many people are worried and obsessed with what is happening on the political stage. The last time I wrote about the candidates was March, 2016 during the primaries and the cast of characters was somewhat different. Now it’s down to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and their respective choices for vice president Tim Kaine and Mike Pence. So I will start here with a very short review of Hillary and Donald for those of you who either did not read that article or want to refresh your memory. Some areas that were vague have been cleared up and there is much that is new including a look at the personality traits of 2016 in light of the elections.

Democrats:

Hillary Clinton: Warrior, third level mature soul, goal of growth, mode of perseverance, pragmatist  attitude, intellectually centered, obstacles of arrogance and stubbornness.

Short review: Basically Hillary started out in politics as a Republican but switched to being a Democrat early on because she wanted to be more socially progressive, but over the years working in a deeply flawed and corrupt system she has gotten hopelessly entangled in the system and cannot find her way out after compromising so many times. She has grown to enjoy the money and power of an elite club but still wants to be seen as progressive and is in fact somewhat socially conscious, at least way more than Donald Trump. However this confusing stance causes many to see her as hypocritical, inconsistent, and untrustworthy.

Hillary is a classic and generally successful politician, and she knows that to get things done, she has to play to a number of audiences at the same time, especially when it comes to fund raising. So to corporate folks she will promise great support for business, her financial base, hinting at lowered regulations, business as usual in terms of access to the White House and support from the Feds and so on. To poor folks she will promise more support and the “It takes a village” philosophy and so on. Sometimes she tells white lies and sometimes downright bald faced lies because as a politician she knows that lying is effective when she needs to cover up a problem or draw attention away from something unpopular that she formerly said or did. While she is used to doing that, (and almost all politicians do that), being a warrior, she is not a good or effective liar. Warriors are notoriously bad liars because they are generally not good natural born actors. Putin is also a warrior and he lies as a matter of policy and everyone knows he is lying. People don’t really believe him when he says that the Russians are not in Ukraine, they just don’t want to call him on it or mess with him for fear of the reprisals. Hillary does lie but she is not the biggest liar around nor is she good at it, as you have seen.

Fact checking web sites list Hillary as about average for misrepresenting the facts. On the other hand they list Donald Trump as off the charts in misrepresentation of the facts. So when Donald Trump labels Hillary a liar, it is the kettle calling the pot black.

Hillary is a pragmatist so she does what she has to do to get her narrow focused goals accomplished. As she is being introduced to someone she is busy looking over their shoulder to see who else is coming that would be more rewarding financially to talk to. This makes her appear insincere and of course sometimes she is completely insincere and this makes people quite annoyed with her. She is somewhat dense as to her own actions and does not have great insight into herself. This does not mean she is incompetent at getting things done because that is where she actually shines. She is at the third level of the mature stage, a warrior level so she is all about getting the job done, anyway she can figure out how to get it done.

To summarize, she is an experienced politician, a get it done person, who exhibits traits that can appear cold and calculating and even insincere. She is trying to please everyone and since that is so difficult she will end up failing to please everyone and therefore she will always have enemies and detractors. If she were freed up from a Republican bottleneck in congress she would make an effective president and probably get a lot done. However she is not likely to be a Kennedyesque much loved figure. Not being a person dedicated to radical transformation, many things will remain the same. Business will like that but many individuals might feel disappointed that she doesn’t transform the country. At this time there is no candidate prepared to deal with the radical transformation that is coming to this country and the world in the next four years. So she is likely to be like a fireman putting out fires right and left but not being able to stop the inferno.

Vice Presidential candidate

Tim Kaine: Is a fourth level mature server, an idealist with a goal of acceptance and a mode of passion, He is emotionally centered with mild arrogance as his obstacle. These traits make him totally different from Hillary Clinton in terms of his personality but his values are quite similar to hers. She picked him because he is a  nurturing presence that makes people feel everything is going to be okay and he is an optimist to boot. Being a server he is not likely to take the spotlight away from Hillary and that of course is what Hillary wants in a vice-president.

Republicans:

Donald Trump: King, fifth level young or success oriented soul, goal of dominance, aggression mode, pragmatist attitude, moving centered, obstacles: arrogance and greed.

Short review: The positive pole of dominance is leadership and the negative pole is dictatorship. Trump is most often in the negative pole. The positive pole of aggression is dynamism and the negative pole is belligerence. He slides back and forth. The positive pole of pragmatism is efficiency and the negative pole is dogmatism. He slides back and forth. His pragmatism is reflected in his simple solutions to big problems, “Build a wall,” “Register Muslims,” “You’re fired”

These personality traits are very similar to Alexander the Great and of Hitler who likewise was a juggernaut in his time. His moving center has him covering a lot of ground continuously. He seldom sits still. When you combine moving with dominance with aggression he is an eighteen-wheeler barreling up behind you on the highway. You have little choice but to get out of the way or get rolled over.

Fifth level is very public and eccentric but not necessarily strategic or masterful.  If Trump were seventh level he could not fail but he is fifth level so while he is unusual and attracts a lot of attention he is not approaching his candidacy masterfully and continues to make many mistakes alienating many who would otherwise vote for him. Michael Jackson was also a fifth level person however he was an artisan, not a king and he was a mature soul and not young. The fifth level can be rather hard to navigate because it is very public and goes against the status quo. This is what many people like about Trump and what others totally distrust.

Kings always pick the enemy for their empires. Mexicans, women, and Muslims are the enemies so far but anyone could be the target if it suits Trump to designate them so.

If he is elected all hell will break loose for better or worse.  This will truly be a trying time for the country and the world dealing with the United States.

Donald Trump does not actually know what it means to be president nor is he all that interested. Already he has been quietly making plans to set his cronies in place to actually run everything. Donald Trump will simply be a figurehead delegating the chores but some of the most right wing, dangerous younger souls around will actually be running the country on a daily basis if he wins.  Donald Trump enjoys running but not actually doing the work. In fact he is so restless that he will find four years in office with all that it requires to be horribly confining and dull. He will create many diversions for himself. This is not unlike the closing days of Richard Nixon’s presidency when he was actually not running the country at all. That was left to his minions while he fretted. Trump as I mentioned before is actually running for king, not president. He will be very disappointed at what a president can get away with as opposed to an absolute monarch which is his fantasy. He wouldn’t mind all that much if he does not win and is actually preparing his adherents for that eventuality.

Vice presidential candidate

Mike Pence is a rule oriented priest with warrior casting. He has the observation mode. Like most younger souls he is quite myopic in his views about government, politics, and just about everything. He likes to get the job done but he is deeply ambivalent about government. On the one hand he likes government to legislate what he wants to see happen, for example outlawing abortion, but on the other hand he doesn’t want government to raise taxes, support social programs, or acknowledge the LGBT community. He wants to cherry pick what government does and to whom. Like all politicians he uses statistics to bolster his views and carefully casts blame by neglecting to mention the statistics he doesn’t like. While he is a balancing energy to Trump’s bombast he is not the sort that Trump will warm up to or see eye to eye with as time goes on. This is not a good combination even though they seem to be on the same page. Sooner or later Trump will say or do something that is just beyond Pence’s ability to overlook it and they will likely have a frosty relationship from then on. Mike Pence appears to support Trump but he is just too rigid to go along with absolutely everything Trump spouts and so the alliance is temporary at best.

The bigger picture

The personality traits for 2016 are role: priest with sage casting, goal of dominance/ submission; mode of aggression, attitude of idealism, obstacle of self destructiveness with some impatience. The center is emotional.

In terms of the elections everyone looks like they are trying to save the country by totally different means. There is a lot of the usual finger pointing, blaming, and pretense at compassion for those who have been left out.  There is a lot of talk and certainly a huge element of entertainment in a sort of horrifying way.

There is plenty of dominance and plenty of aggression and of course huge idealism as was readily seen in the “Feel the Bern movement” and in Donald Trump’s fan base.  Emotions clearly rule the day as there is little discussion of the real issues, just a bunch of blaming and being aghast.  There is huge anger.  We are witness to terrific self-destruction as Trump repeatedly alienates voters and Hillary fights her own past demons with e-mail revelations galore.  Yes, the personality traits of the year are prominent and center stage.

Now let us move on to looking at the overall picture. What I am saying here is not news but people do need to be reminded of it. This passion play that is the American elections is designed to bring out in glaring neon lights much of the dirt that has been swept under the rug for years.

Let’s list some of that dirt:

Extreme social inequality; extreme economic inequality; a rigged system to support the very wealthy; freedom for corporations to completely trash Mother Earth and trash people’s health for the sake of profits; a pretense at democracy while in fact lobbyists buy politicians to do whatever they want; a pretense at being politically correct while deep racist and sexist fears rage beneath the surface of a seemingly just and fair system; a food industry that turns food into processed poison destroying the health of the nation, a completely broken educational system that is de facto apartheid, a health system that is not so much a health system but a guaranteed illness system complete with hospitals that create and spread disease; a political system that is little more than a joke on a world wide stage of humiliation; a justice system that is really a business designed to fill prisons with minorities for private corporations to profit; A military industrial complex designed to profit from endless war on the backs of soldiers manipulated shamelessly by powerful corporations and their security forces on an international stage. An energy industry designed to be grossly inefficient. Shall I go on or is that enough?

What is right

And shockingly and surprisingly the United States of American remains one of the safest and best places to live on the planet. That gives you an idea just how imbalanced things are in the rest of the world. Even with all this dirt the majority of humans that live in America are actually decent people that are generous and kind even though many of them have jobs working in sectors described above. They need to make a living and they know that they are working in industries that have seriously flawed values but they feel helpless to change it. So they look the other way and pretend that what they are doing is honorable and sometimes it is in small local ways.

Strangely the country manages to bumble along and many people find happiness despite the fact that the building is rotten and falling down.  Trump emphasizes the failures in the system for his own gain and Clinton emphasizes the strength of the people for her own gain. They are both right in their way, just addressing different things.

What is needed

These elections are designed to bring everything on display for the American people and the rest of the world to see. So the people select from the smorgasbord of ills what they are most indignant about and follow their candidate thinking that maybe they will make America great again but they won’t. The whole mess is unsustainable and has to be remade from the ground up. Do you see any candidate prepared to do that or any candidate capable of doing that? The honest answer is no. So the mess will not go away and the results of the mess will force itself upon the nation and its leaders whether they are ready or not, capable or not. And in the end the mess will get dealt with by who? You and me, by ordinary people who rise up to take responsibility as answers are needed. The leaders will then follow and try to take the credit. Isn’t that the typical way of it?

The elections reveal the true nature of the great divide in the United States at this time, simply put, the different values, temperaments, and approaches of people with very different soul ages. Trump’s followers are mostly toddler and child level souls that are following him because they secretly want a monarch who will tell them what to do and make them feel safe again while Clinton’s followers, despite gritting their teeth at her many and obvious flaws, tend to be adolescent, young adult, and adult souls. They are following her because they dread the prospect of a Trump presidency and because at least she appears to espouse some socially progressive ideas, if barely. Thus the two represent the distant past and the status quo with the possibility of some progress. This divide not only represents the United States but the world at large at this time.

The times we are in are like a highway we are on with cautionary road construction signs warning of a work zone ahead. We are in for tearing up the pavement and rerouting the traffic. There will be big trucks and bulldozers, lots of dust and water trucks and lots of construction workers. We will have to pay attention and perhaps slow down for awhile, even stop. Then the construction zone will clear up and the road will be clear ahead. Maybe there won’t be a road anymore and everyone will take off in flying machines. These are the kind of times we are in. Get use to it, it’s a long work zone with delays. Play the radio, talk to your family, meditate, contemplate the countryside, be patient. As they say Rome wasn’t built in a day. Will we get through? There is no doubt in my mind that we will because Spirit is peeking out from within everything, and grinning.

JOSÉ STEVENS

José Stevens PhD is an international lecturer, corporate team builder and organizational coach, consultant and trainer. A psychologist, licensed clinical social worker and author of more than twenty books and numerous articles, he is also co-editor for A Journal of Contemporary Shamanism and a board member of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners. He is the founder, with his wife Lena, of the Power Path School of Shamanism and The Center for Shamanic Education and Exchange, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating youth in indigenous cultures. He has completed a ten-year apprenticeship with a Huichol Maracame in Mexico and has studied with the Shipibos of the Amazon and the Paqos of the Andes for the last thirty years.

Go to: www.thepowerpath.com